The gardener's eye

The Gardener's Eye

Saturday, May 17, 2014

Playing Ball: Where they Landed

Earlier in the season, I was thinking of different boxwood combinations I might like to try. I ended up doing something rather subtle, but it feels "right" to me. I often suggest to gardening friends that they make upgrades to their garden that feel "inevitable" that is to say not forced but was feels as if it was always there. So I took my own advice and moved two boxwoods to the Blue Bench Terrace rather than the central lawn in the Lower Garden as depicted a few posts back. A safer choice for sure.

Originally, I had a pair of boxwoods flanking the top of the stairs leading to the Woodland Garden. They always felt isolated and lonesome. Last year, I added the larger boxwood behind the left bench and it felt much better. This year, I added two more boxwoods, one on each side. I am playing with the tension of the perfect symmetry (of the terrace, central stone base of a planter, the pair of benches, and the focal point of the Cercidiphyllum japonicum in the Woodland Garden) and the asymmetrical cluster of boxwoods on the outer edges of the picture. Grouping the boxwoods like this has also acted as a low wall at the top of the steep slope to the Woodland Garden and anchors that space so it doesn't feel like the visitor will slip off the terrace and down the hill. The contrast of the flowering Prunus x 'Hally Jolivette' adds to the picture in mid-May.

LinkWithin

About Me

I am an optometrist by profession. I designed and maintained public gardens in Peterborough, NH for nearly two decades. I host garden tours of English Gardens for a tour company called Discover Europe. In 2016, I led a new tour that I designed called The Passionate Gardener. This blog is a chronicle of my gardening adventures.